Our vision is to maintain an internationally competitive scientific environment where scientists and students in the humanities, natural and social sciences and mathematics can work together and mutually benefit from each other’s knowledge and methods. CEK engages in and runs projects together with researchers and departments both within Stockholm University and in international collaborations.

CEK works on breaking up the divide between biology and the humanities, and also between different disciplines and research programmes within the humanities. Our view is that the division between natural science and the humanities is artifical and unjustified for the study of culture, and that different disciplines can vitalise each other.

Scientific progress is often the result of strong interaction between data and theory. Empirical data gives inspiration and takes out a direction for theoretical work, which in turn needs to be evaluated by further empirical work. Mathematics is an important tool for theoretical work, to formalise ideas and theories, evaluate logical consequences and generate testable hypotheses. At CEK, theoretical, mathematical and empirical approaches and angles exist in parallel from a broad variety of disciplines.